The final night had arrived, and the sky was no longer blue or purple, but it was a dark, bruised gray that felt like it was pressing down on the roofs of our houses. The elders opened the heavy iron doors of the Great Hall and led the thirty of us out into the village square, but we were not the same girls who had entered a week ago, for most were walking with their heads down and their eyes looking at nothing. The village had built a massive bonfire in the center of the square, and the flames were leaping so high that they licked at the dark air, creating a circle of orange light that was meant to be a celebration of our sacrifice. This was the "Thank You" party, a night where the villagers were told to dance and eat and be merry, but as I looked at the faces of the people I had known my whole life, I saw only the reflection of their own guilt and fear.

"Eat, dance, and hold your loved ones close," Elder Bram shouted over the roar of the fire, and he gestured toward the long tables filled with roasted meats and sweet cakes that the village had spent days preparing. "Tonight, we thank these thirty brave daughters of Ariath, for they are the wall that keeps us safe, and we must send them off with joy so the treaty remains strong. Enjoy your last hours with your families, for the beasts are already circling the village walls, and the wind tells me that it will soon be time for the final walk to the Edge."

The words "last hours" hit me like a physical blow to the stomach, and I felt a cold shiver run down my spine because I knew how final this was. As I stood near the flames, I thought about Elara, my best friend who had been taken in the ceremony five years ago. Elara was the one who had taught me how to be rebellious and how to ask the questions that made the elders angry, for she never believed that we should just be sheep for the wolves. We had met in the woods a month before her own ceremony, and we had sat by a hidden stream, promising each other that we would never bow down to the beasts. We had made a secret plan that if she was taken, she would find a way to return to the village and tell us the truth about the forest, but five years had passed, and no one had heard even a whisper from her.

As I was lost in my thoughts, two people pushed through the crowd toward me, and I recognized them as Elara's parents, their faces looking older and more tired than they did when their daughter was still home. Her mother reached out and grabbed my hand, and she pressed a small, heavy silver pendant into my palm, her eyes filled with a desperate kind of hope that made my heart ache. "Kiana, please," she whispered, her voice shaking with a sob she was trying to hide. "If you see our Elara in that dark place, give her this family pendant, for we want her to always remember who she is and that her family still loves her. We haven't heard from her since the night she was snatched, but if anyone can find her and survive, it is you."

"I will find her," I promised, closing my fingers tightly over the cold silver, and I felt a new fire of determination burning inside me. "Elara and I promised we would not be silent, and if she is still out there, I will give her this, and we will find a way to honor the promise we made by the stream."

I saw my own mother and Mara standing near the edge of the crowd, and I pushed away from Elara's parents until I could wrap my arms around my family, feeling the way Mara was shaking against my side. My father was there too, standing a few feet away with his arms crossed, and though he did not speak, I could see the way his jaw was working as he stared at the dark forest that was waiting for us.

"They are already out there, Kiana," my mother whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of a fiddle player who was trying to play a happy tune that no one wanted to hear. "The elders say the Beast Legion is so close that they can hear our laughter, and they are just waiting for the moon to turn red so they can claim their debt. Please, my daughter, do not fight them tonight, for I want to remember you as you are now, and I do not want the last thing you see to be a claw or a tooth because you were too stubborn to stay silent."

"I cannot promise you that, Mother," I said, and I reached into my thin white dress to touch the family pendant and the small silk pouch she had given me. "I will say my goodbyes, and I will walk to the Edge because I have no choice, but I will not pretend that I am happy to be a sacrifice for a village that is too afraid to stand on its own two feet. Look at them, Mother, they are dancing while they prepare to give us away, and they are eating while they know we will never be seen or heard from again after the sun goes down."

My father finally stepped closer, and for a moment, the anger in his eyes softened into something that looked like real pain, but his voice was still stiff and hard when he spoke. "You have always been a difficult girl, Kiana, but you are my daughter, and I hope the forest is kinder to you than you think it will be. Do not look back when you reach the grass, for the beasts do not like it when their prizes try to cling to the world of men, and it is better for everyone if you just let go and disappear into the dark without a struggle."

"I am not a prize, Father, and I will never let go of who I am," I told him, looking him straight in the eyes until he was the one who had to turn away. "You may be okay with me disappearing, but I am going to make sure that whatever beast takes me knows exactly who I am, and I will not be a nameless ghost that you can forget."

The mood of the party shifted suddenly when the moon began to rise higher in the sky, and we all watched as a thin sliver of red began to bleed across its silver surface. The laughter died down, the music stopped, and a terrible, heavy silence fell over the square as the bonfire began to burn low into glowing red coals. The Village Head stepped forward, his face pale in the red moonlight, and he held up a silver bell that he rang only once.

"The time has come," he announced, and his voice was full of a fear that he could no longer hide. "The Blood Moon is full, and the treaty must be paid, so we must lead these thirty daughters to the Edge where the watchers are waiting. Do not follow us, and do not look toward the trees, for the snatching will be fast, and once they cross the boundary, they belong to the King of the Beast forever."

I felt Mara's fingers slip from mine as my mother pulled her back, and the sound of families sobbing at once was the most terrible thing I had ever heard. I stood with the other girls, our white dresses glowing like bone in the red moonlight, and I felt a strange, cold calm settle over my heart. I didn't cry, but I reached down to feel the small, sharp blade in my dress and the silver pendant in my hand. The elders thought this was the end of our lives, and my father thought I should be silent, but as we began to walk toward the dark wall of trees, I knew that this was the start of a fight that Elara had prepared me for. The beasts were waiting, but I was not going to disappear without a trace.

The red moon was now high and heavy in the sky, and it cast a bloody glow over the entire village that made everything look like it was soaked in rust, but the silence that followed the bell was suddenly shattered by a sound that made my heart stop. From the deep, dark shadows of the forest, a howl erupted that was so mighty and so full of power that the ground beneath my feet seemed to shake, and it was followed by dozens of other howls that sounded like a chorus of thunder. The sound was not like a normal beast , but it was deep and vibrating, and it carried a hunger that made the air feel thick and hard to breathe. All at once, the "party" was over, for the villagers who had been dancing only minutes ago began to scream and run toward their huts, and the sound of children crying for their mothers filled the air as everyone scrambled to hide behind locked doors and silver-bolted windows.

"Gather now!" Elder Bram shouted, his voice cracking with a terror that he could no longer hide, and he waved his wooden cane at the thirty of us who stood in our white dresses. "The Beast Legion is at the walls, and the King is waiting for his tribute, so you must form a line and walk to the Edge right now, or they will come into the village and take what they want by force."

My mother tried to hold onto me one last time, but the village guards pushed her away, and I saw my little sister Mara being dragged into our house while she reached out for me with tiny, trembling hands. I felt a cold, sharp pain in my chest as I watched my family disappear behind a heavy wooden door, but I didn't have time to cry, for the elders were already pushing us toward the gate that led to the dark woods. We walked in a long, shivering line, and the only sound was the soft scuff of our slippers on the dirt and the distant, terrifying growls that seemed to be coming from every direction at once.

When we reached the Edge, the elders stopped at the very last row of houses and refused to go a single step further, for there was a line of white stones that marked the boundary between the world of men and the world of the beasts. "Go on," the Village Head whispered, his face as white as a ghost in the red moonlight, "walk into the tall grass and wait, and remember the rules if you wish to live through the night." We stepped over the stones and into the long, wild grass that felt like cold fingers brushing against our legs, and we stood there in a row, thirty girls in white dresses waiting to be taken by the shadows.

The snatching began without any warning at all, and it was so fast that it felt like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from. One second, a girl named Sarah was standing two feet away from me, and the next second, there was a sudden gust of wind and a blur of gray fur, and she was simply gone. There was no sound of footsteps and no sight of a face, but only a sharp, short scream that was cut off as she was pulled into the trees at a speed that no human eye could follow. Then it happened again, and again, as the beasts moved like lightning through the grass, snatching girls one by one and disappearing back into the dark before I could even blink.

I stood my ground, my hands clenching the silver pendant and the small blade hidden in my skirt, but my heart was drumming against my ribs like a trapped bird. The air was full of the scent of wet fur and old pine, and I could hear the terrified sobs of the girls remaining, but their voices were disappearing fast as the Legion claimed them. I watched as Mara's friend, a sweet girl who had been trembling all night, was suddenly lifted into the air by an invisible force and whisked away into the shadows, and soon, the long grass was empty of everyone but me. The silence that returned was even scarier than the screams, for it meant that I was the only one left, and I realized that the beasts had stopped their frantic, fast movements.

I looked around, my eyes wide and searching the tree line, but I didn't see a blur or a flash of fur this time. Instead, the bushes directly in front of me parted slowly, and a creature stepped out that was far larger and more terrifying than anything the elders had ever described in their stories. This beast did not move fast, and he did not snatch me like a piece of meat, but he walked toward me with a slow, heavy grace that made the very earth groan under his weight. He was taller than any man I had ever seen, and his body was covered in thick, midnight-black fur that seemed to swallow the red moonlight, but it was his eyes that truly paralyzed me. They were not just red, but they glowed like two burning coals in the dark, and they were fixed on my face with an intelligence that was cold and ancient.

This was not a common soldier of the Legion, but this was the King of the Beast in his most primal form, and as he stepped closer, I could feel the heat radiating off his massive body. He was so large that his shoulders reached the height of the lower tree branches, and his claws were like long, curved daggers made of obsidian that dug into the dirt with every step. I wanted to run, and I wanted to pull out my knife and fight, but my legs felt like they were made of stone, and my breath caught in my throat as he stopped just a few feet away from me. He lowered his massive head, his hot breath smelling of woodsmoke and wild things hitting my face, and he let out a low, vibrating growl that I could feel in my very bones. I was alone at the Edge, staring into the eyes of a monster that could crush me with a single paw, and for the first time in my life, my stubbornness was replaced by a pure, shivering fear that I was finally face-to-face with death itself.